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Re: [Revlist] Top 3 reasons ...

What a neat question, thank you for bringing this one up! Kind of makes you think, doesn t it... ...and Mickey, glad to see you posting! Don t be shy... My

Message 1 of 3
, Nov 5, 2000

What a neat question, thank you for bringing this one up! Kind of
makes you think, doesn't it...

...and Mickey, glad to see you posting! Don't be shy...

My top three reasons, I guess, would be

1. I've always had an interest in history, ever since I was a
kid--loved historical novels and movies (well, I thought they were
"historical" at the time, ok??), had my first air rifle at 7 or so,
played cowboys and "guns," as we put it, with the boys in the
neighborhood (always was a tomboy!) I was fascinated with old music
and foodstuffs from my earliest memories, and remember parching
cornmeal for mush when I was little, forcing it on my unsuspecting
friends. (Hey, don't knock it...) My first real job was at the Old
Jail Museum in Independence, as a costumed tour guide--their first, but
I'll bet not their last.

I think a LOT of us come to the hobby that way...we still get to dress
up and play, and the everyday reality just slips away.<G> What could
be more magical than looking out over a camp at night, seeing the
fires, smelling dinner cooking ( I _like_ pease, ok??), or hearing
someone playing a wooden whistle off in the distance. What could be
more exciting than the sound of fifes and drums before a battle, and
the smell of gunpowder? Or standing on the battlements of an old stone
fort like Ticonderoga, looking out over the lake in the moonlight, or
walking the streets of Williamsburg at night and seeing nothing but
other people in clothes that fit the scene? Or watching dancers by
lanternlight, or someone turn a bar of iron into something useful--it
really IS magic.

2. It's a wonderful way to keep _learning_. You're never bored,
because there's always something more out there to research, to dig
for. Whether period music, food, drinks, clothing, women's roles,
nuances or timelines of military uniforms, how our ancestors tanned
leather, what crops were grown in a specific area, what proportion of
runaways in a given area were of what background, elements of
ethnicity, what goods were imported from where, family history, crime,
bawdiness and other revelry, religion, medicine, superstition, useful
wild plants, crafts like blacksmithing or gunsmithing, there's always
something "new" to discover.

I'm a bit of an iconoclast (she said in the personal understatement of
the year<g>), and I LOVE finding some arcane fact in the primary
documents that modifies or disproves yet another misconception or
stereotype...it's exciting and fun, and a real treasure hunt, and I
literally can't wait to share it. The odd stuff is so much fun...

The LISTS are so much fun...lots and lots of information out there,
often sparking further explorations. Bored? I can't imagine it...

Obsessed, now, that's a lot easier to imagine...<g>

3. The people. Like many of you, most of my friends are reenactors or
historians. (We're ALL nuts, who else is gonna understand?)
Reenactors, historians, living history interpreters, whatever...almost
all the people I know in this thing we do are intelligent, involved,
and INTERESTING (and Ian said it far better than I could...). They're
quirky and funny and curious about life. They're intense, and
committed. (And some of us probably should be...<G>) I may not agree,
always, with the people I come in contact with, but it's fun to bat
things back and forth. Again, I always learn something...

They're also, as Dave says, a cut above the norm, or so has been my
experience. I know there are cutpurses and users in any group of
people, but my experience in this hobby has been that people are
usually helpful, patient, kind, compassionate, and ready to lend a hand
when needed...